• Record Label: Warp
  • Release Date: Oct 19, 2004
Metascore
65

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 18
  2. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. Spin
    83
    He's more grounded... and his evasive, abstract beats underpin his vocals less randomly. [Dec 2004, p.124]
  2. Blender
    80
    Beans's themes may be everyday, but thankfully his wit isn't. [Nov 2004, p.129]
  3. Mojo
    80
    The sound of Beans returning to the hip hop that hatched him, remaking it in his image. [Dec 2004, p.100]
  4. Beans has yet to learn, however, that we’re paying the price of admission to hear him wrap his tongue around the mic, not screw around with his drum machine.
  5. Urb
    70
    This time, he's truly on some next shit instrumentally and vocally. [Nov 2004, p.98]
  6. New Musical Express (NME)
    70
    [A] groovily electronic, acid-addled collection of throat-tickling, Venusian rhyme formations. [23 Oct 2004, p.51]
  7. His machinegun flow is as cerebral as ever, but too much of the album's production slides by in a dignified haze of twinkling clips and clacks, devoid of real grime or grizzled substance.
  8. Maverick has a more consistent tone than either of Beans' previous records, but it also lacks the stand-outs of its predecessors, settling into bland production strokes that recede behind his always fascinating rhymes.
  9. Nothing scrambles the brain like Tomorrow Right Now's "Hot Venom," and no track has lyrics that hit as hard as Now, Soon, Someday's "Win or Lose You Lose," but the album maintains a consistency that neither of those releases can claim.
  10. The Wire
    60
    This album does suffer a mysterious drop in its energy levels midway in. [#249, p.50]
  11. As hit-and-miss as its 2003 predecessor.
  12. It’s stripped down, tough and raw, but a world away from any gangsta pose – this is more inward facing, an attempt to expand the horizons of hip-hop, striving for a new rap language, with a free flow sprawl of image and polemic.
  13. If parts of "Shock City" shudder under the weight of seeming too cool for school, much credit is due Beans for being one of the producer/MCs desperate to stretch out the rubbery boundaries of the genre.
  14. Uncut
    60
    Here, Beans returns to his roots. [Nov 2004, p.106]
  15. His beats continue to be hypnotically bare-boned, old skool synth assault platforms, over which he then reels you in with his ceaseless syllabic slurry, his lyrics almost irrelevant as his ridiculous flow blurs everything into an inescapable rhythm. At top speed this approach yields irresistible amounts of adrenaline, the downside being that slower tracks lose the listener in drifts of abstraction.
  16. The album fails mainly in its inability to set itself apart; for a Warp release it’s dull, Beans isn’t enough of a rapper to carry the show by himself, and the beats feel like they would have been interesting if they didn’t just remain stagnant through pretty much every track.
  17. Q Magazine
    40
    His reluctance to engage, ego issues and occasional sexism speak of a vanity as large as any of the major-label players he opposes. [Nov 2004, p.117]
  18. Magnet
    40
    Where the smart rap of Antipop Consortium came off as quick and cutting, Maverick just seems remote. [#66, p.86]
User Score
7.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 5 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 1 out of 5
  1. MattD
    May 30, 2005
    10
    look guys...this album's getting mediocre ratings from magazines, but that doesn't mean shit. this is easily one of the hottest look guys...this album's getting mediocre ratings from magazines, but that doesn't mean shit. this is easily one of the hottest albums i've ever heard. some articles talked bad about his ego and everything, but caan you think of a rapper who doesn't have an ego? the lyrics here are top-notch Full Review »
  2. davidg
    Mar 9, 2005
    10
    beans is amazing, shock city maverick is an instant classic
  3. Chris
    Jan 27, 2005
    9
    I Liked it alot. This was a nice album by the Former Anti Pop Consortium MC Beans. IT is very fresh and he does great on almost every track.